Posted on 12/01/2004 5:04:37 PM PST by gab1279
There are cracks in time when leaders are given a chance to bend history and forever change the course of events inside countries and across continents. [snip]
Being the optimistic fool that I am, I dare to believe that 2005 could be a year of epic change in the Middle East. [snip]
I know I sound terribly naive in a week with stories of a young Palestinian girl riddled with bullets, U.S. troops continuing to be blown up by roadside bombs, and Israeli security checkpoint guards taunting Palestinian citizens in a way that elicits memories of the Holocaust for Jewish survivors.
As a strident defender of Israel, I am sickened by the news of this young girl being gunned down and then filled with countless bullets after she was already dead. Read the story and tell me how the hell this could have happened.
Meanwhile, the chances of success in Iraq seem more remote everyday, but only because media outlets in America and across the world obsess on the negative while dismissing U.S. progress there. [snip]
Regardless of what the New York Times wants you to believe, this war is not Vietnam. JFK stumbled into Southeast Asia and LBJ got elected in 1964 before any serious escalation took place. By the time Johnson was up for reelection four years later, the war had destroyed his presidency.
About 30 years later, Americans rehired a president who let them know he is going to use all powers available to hunt down and kill every last terrorist on the face of the earth. So just as that cowboy Reagan getting elected in 1980 and 1984 cast a pall over the Kremlin, Bush's victory made bin Laden's cave-for-the-night seem a bit more damp and cold than usual.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I was also shocked at the tragic way the young Palestinian girl was gunned down, it just made me sick.
I pray that there is a chance right now for a real sea change in the Middle East. It is hard for me to fathom what is going through the minds of the terrorists who can mercilessly kill innocents and not even blink an eye.
Joe hasn't had a great column or TV show in my recent memory. He's as skittish as an abandoned cat on the Iraq war, was down on Bush when other conservatives stood tall with him. Joe can pound sand for all I care.
To jump on the bandwagon now when the light at the tunnels end can be seen is pretty weak!
It is not clear, but if he is referring to the incident during which those guarding the checkpoint made a palestinian play his violin, that didn't happen. They made him open the case (understandably), but his playing the instrument was something he did on his own. People who write this stuff really need to check their facts.
Scarborough, infected by liberalism after a few years at MSNBC. Now he's pro-Palestinian too.
Sorry Joe - you lost me there. Maybe those painkillers are effecting his thinking.
Hanging around Pat B. too much. Next he'll be advocating negotiations with the Mullahs of Iran.
This is not the real story. Read more here: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=70265
Israeli security checkpoint guards taunting Palestinian citizens in a way that elicits memories of the Holocaust for Jewish survivors
He's talking about the violin incident....It has been found that the guy opened the case after being requested to do so by IDF soldiers who wanted to see whether it was a violin inside, etc. He was not made to play the violin, the soldiers told him to stop, and there is evidence showing that they were not taunting him.
http://www.neoperspectives.com/terrorism.htm
Causes of Terrorism
Bingo!
I wouldn't necessarily call that a weak stomach, even accepting your point. Kids are kids.
That's why the soldier is up on charges.
The leading contender for PA leadership is in jail too, for multiple murders.
It would be nice, but don't hold your breath for a sea change.
Not taunting him? My understanding is the videotape (peace activists, destroy the tapes when they don't support your propaganda) shows him voluntarily playing. Makes sense, he sholdn't have been allowed through that checkpoint, period. The IDF cut him a bread.
Another beta particle emitted from society's moral decay, starting with abortion. Now kids are used as ammo.
Q. What is different between Palestinians using children as suicide bombers, and euthanasia of small children in 'Scandahoovian' countries?
A. The euthanasia doesn't lead to dead Jews...yet.
Jeez, Palestinians are humans too. You'd think looking at the posts here many would like a holocaust of the Palestinian people.
There are good and innocent citizens there too, but the terrorists are unfortunately all people see.
I don't like or agree with all Palestinians being painted as crazy, bad people.
But Christian empathy for other human beings and their plight, does NOT make me or anyone else another crazy Pat B. I support Isreal, but terrorist behavior is not acceptable.
It IS hard to tell who's what when children are used as suicide bombers, but I can't help but feel sadness also for those misguided, brainwashed children, who have never had a chance to learn right from wrong, never a chance to grow up and form their own opinions.
If caring as a Christian in this way makes someone a "bleeding heart", then I guess that's what I am.
I have always believed that just because you are on one side of the fence, doesn't mean you should hate the other.
Those scandanavian babies are indeed innocent. But the dead Palestinian girl had it coming?
Max certainly didn't say that in 8. My suggestion, back up accusations like that, and direct them to the perpetrators.
No, you apparently missed my point.
Abortion leads to devaluing of human life, beginning with the most defenseless.
Euthanasia of children is one manifestation, children as suicide bombers or trojan horses is ANOTHER manifestation.
They're BOTH WRONG!!!
(Israeli soldiers fired in self-defence since they could no longer assume the innocence of children; Israelis were not trying on purpose to kill people they KNEW were innocent, but decided to kill anyway, as suicide bombers do. And there have been teenage female suicide bombers, as articles here on Free Republic have pointed out.)
But that's the point of "innocence". It really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks about the actions they take. The innocent is innocent, by definition. Ask those scandanavian doctors (and parents) why they did what they did. They'll give you reasons -they didn't do it for fun. The soldiers had their reasons too. we can't judge victims at all. we can look at why people took the actions they took. That is different than Joe S. saying he feels for the kid.
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